Monday, December 28, 2009

Are all the world's airport security workers too busy taking away tweezers, nail clippers, little tiny eyeglass screwdrivers, and 2 ounces too much toothpaste away from people, while you walk around in your goddamn socks, to miss a guy with explosives tied to his nutsack????? And, the explosives were easily detectable with today's "puffer" screening machines?????

Thank God for people like Dutch tourist Jasper Schuringa, who had the guts and the spine to jump this POS "terrorist", and stop him before he could take out a whole plane of innocent holiday travelers, going home to see their families.

Like I said when I heard about how they commandeered the planes during 9/11 "They used WHAT? Jesus Christ, box cutters ain't shit!" The people on the plane that went down in PA on 9/11 did what they could to defend themselves, and they were right to do so, which resulted in preventing even more tragedy from occuring that day. This world is so fucked up on what's right, and what's wrong anymore.

You have probably seen pictures of Stan Betz's '82 El Camino before, but this is the feature article on it that appeared in the April '83 issue of Truckin' magazine. Coincidentally, this is also the issue that Arlen Ness' chopped, sectioned, and lowered '77 Ford E100 van was featured, too. I'll save that one for another time, OK?

Betz took the Elco to Dutch when it was a very new truck, and it's supposed to be the very last full-on job like this that Dutch did for anybody. So, we can assume that this was also the last Betz shop truck that Von Dutch did as well. I'm going to take you into some trivia on this paintjob that wasn't in the Truckin' article, and you probably don't know about. Let's look at the B&W page first. I've put A, B, andC on the photos to guide you.......

On the top Photo A, you see what looks like a flamed panel, with Betz's shop name, with a lot of flame licks. If you look really close, right near/between the flame licks of the panel itself, you'll see some red and yellow shapes, that have EYES. Those are SPERM swimming!

In Photo B, you see the "head sperm" on the Lt. front fender, and he's turned around, and he's saying something to the other sperm swimming towards him. You can't make it out, but if you look right by his mouth (?) there's some lettering. What he's saying is "TURN BACK, IT'S A BLOWJOB!"

Now, in Photo C, you can read the description of the "3D effect", and the "real" look that the spider on the top of the Lt. front fender has. This wasn't planned by Dutch. Evidently, right before he turned the truck back over to Betz, Dutch somehow took a big chip out of the fender there. To cover up and fix the chip without repainting it,(Dutch did a lot of covering up fuckups like this, on his work), he mixed up a blob of fiberglass resin, put it over the chip, and then painted the blob to look like a spider after it dried. That's how he got the "3D" look to it.

Now, let's look at the color page. In the upper R/H corner, we see the 3D spider that was referred to on the B&W page, in Photo C. In the bottom photo here, I've circled the approximate location on the top of the Lt. front fender where it was located. You can also see a little clearer the red and yellow sperms swimming in this picture, too.

Here's what Betz said about the paintjob (from The Art Of Von Dutch) :" In 1982, I took my El Camino to Von Dutch for painting. It only took 10 days for Von Dutch to completely custom paint, stripe, and letter the pickup. In those days, that just wasn't heard of. There weren't too many painters who could do that......Two months after the truck was done, it got in an accident and was never repaired. Since the truck was unfixable I ended up cutting the truck into pieces to save Dutch's artwork".

Now, according to Pat Ganahl, in his book Von Dutch - The Art, The Myth, and The Legend, he says that there was an accident before the one Betz talks about, in which just the left front fender and hood needed to be replaced, but were never painted to match afterwards. Evidently, Betz is talking about another collision that involved the truck, and this was the one that I've heard totaled out the truck. Some vehicles are just like that. That also means that Betz's El Camino had ceased to exist long before this feature article even appeared in print, too!

Betz had the two quarter panels, the right fender, and the tailgate attached to his shop's storage racks for a long time, and then I remember a few years ago, seeing them all up on Ebay in separate auctions. They all sold, and god knows where they wound up today.

I'm going to take a couple guesses here. In the caption that went along with the photo, Larry Kumferman said Dick was firing a .44 cal. black powder pistol. I'm thinking it was probably a .36 cal. Navy Colt, from the short ramrod, and the diameter/length of the cylinder. The pistol looks a little short overall to be a .44 cal. Walker Colt, but it's really hard to see.

I'm also going to guess that Kumferman took the picture at a camp along Boulder Canyon (14 A), between Deadwood and Sturgis. They used to let you camp along 14 A because it was National Forest land, and there were, well, only 10-12,000 people and not many campgrounds back then. As the crowds got larger, they "rescinded" this privilege. Besides, all the M/C's used Deadwood as a party base then, and that would have fit just fine in Dick's agenda.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Ok, how cool is this? A roller skate powered by a nitro- burning 2 stroke engine. Just your average '50's girl's steel wheeled sidewalk roller skate powered by a .23 ci. engine, that turned 13,000 RPM according to the letter Dutch sent Hot Rod magazine that showed up in their Nov. '55 issue. You'll notice that in the specs Dutch painted on the skate, it says 1,300 RPM. Dutch said the ignition was via glow plug, and the engine had a counterbalanced, double ended crankshaft mounted in ball bearings. The rear wheels mounted directly to the crankshaft ends. Holy cow.

This thing actually worked. Somewhere I have a photo of Von Dutch tearing down the street on the skates, with a teather string for a throttle. I can't find it right now, but when I do, I'll post it up for you to see.

Some people have said that both the pair of skates were powered, but Dutch only powered one of them. That was how you "stopped" yourself - when you had scared yourself silly on them, you raised the powered skate off the ground to "stop" yourself. Sidewalk cracks must have been a bitch!

Here's a drawing of a 2 stroke pogo stick that Dutch sent along with another photo of his roller skate to Hot Rod magazine, that they published in their Nov. '55 issue. Dutch said in part, in the acompaning letter, that the pogo stick ".....is under construction now (pilot model), to be available in one, two, and three story hop models".

Now, I've never seen a photo of the finished pogo stick, and I've always read that Von Dutch never actually built one, but.......

I have a friend that I trust when he tells me something, and he told me that Dutch actually had this pogo stick almost finished, then he traded it off. Now, my friend says that a person he knew very well had possession of the pogo stick at one time, and he also saw the pogo stick himself. He said that person who had it was none other than Slave Lewie Roseberry. Take it for what it's worth....

Friday, December 18, 2009

Yeah, I've been slackin' on the blog, but I had good reason....I was beat, and way behind on my Emails, phone messages, and work I couldn't get to before I left. I never thought a trip to SoCal would wear me out, but it did, and I had a good time all around.

Thursday I drove on snowpack on I-70 in Colorado near Vail Pass , and missed a 3 car accident on the Pass by about 15 minutes. I sat on I-70 for about 45 minutes while they dragged the upside-down SUV that was blocking both Westbound lanes out of the way, and I hit more snowpacked roads near Avon, Rifle, and Parachute. Once I got near Grand Jct., the roads were clear, but it was COLD! 10 to 5 degrees above at the gas stops.

Even when I got to Las Vegas Thursday night, the temperature was 31 degrees! I spent the night in Primm, NV, and when I went out to the truck the next morning, I still had snow in the pickup bed! Friday, just south of Primm, going up I-15 to the top of the Providence Mtns., they had 2" of snow up there, and I-15 was iced over at the summit.

In CA., it started raining as I went thru Victorville/Apple Valley, and when I got to Cajon Pass, the fog was about 3 feet off I-15, and you could only see 2-3 carlengths ahead. Once I dropped down to L.A, it was pouring, and didn't let up until early Sunday morning.

I got to everything I wanted to in Cali. I took in the reception For Thy Will Be Done (promoted by Big Iron Joe, and Tey Herrera) on Friday night, and the actual art show on Saturday night. We weren't sure if the Mooneyes Christmas Party at Irwindale Speedway was on, so Kristina (of Glitterfist Productions & Photography) and I did a drive-by Saturday morning. Our alternate plan was to get cheap tattoos if it was a bust, but it was in full swing in the rain. Who says SoCal people are pussies? We got lots of photos shot, and had a great time to boot. The tats will have to wait for another time, I guess, haha!

Sunday was a completely different deal. The sun was shining, and the drive up from L.A. to Ventura for the David Mann Chop Fest was beautiful. It was just like "Old Home Week" - I'd take a couple steps, and would run into somebody I knew. Kristina's head was spinning, she met so many perople that day she couldn't keep track of everybody, poor girl, but she didn't let anything or anybody stand in her way. She dove in and did some kick-ass photography work for us. Look for my articles (and Kristina's photography) in upcoming issues of The Horse on all 3 events.

Monday I went over to Kristina's place in Yucaipa, and picked up the upright metal bandsaw, the lathe, and a "gift" from Jesse James I hadn't planned on finding (see the history of the machinery in the post below). Jesse had told me Saturday night that he had found a bunch of the quick change lathe gears, and "some other stuff", and had put it by the lathe. Well, what he left me was this big-azz reciprocal hacksaw! Well, what could I do, it was a gift from Jesse, so I loaded it up.

The lathe is kick ass. It has a patent date cast into it's bed of Feb. 1880, and a revised patent date of Nov. 1890. Dennis Goodson seems to think it's actually WW I vintage, and he's a good judge of old machinery. Everything works well, it all needs to be cleaned and spiffed up a little, and hopefully I'll get some pictures up here as I do it. Actually, it's all gonna get the "Von Dutch" treatment, so keep checking here.

As far as the ride back, it was uneventfull, save for a 3 car accident East of Grand Jct., that I squeaked by, and didn't have to stop for.

One last thing - when Part-timer Steve and I unloaded everything, he was looking at it all, and he said, "You know what all this reminds me of? It reminds me of all the machinery we saw in Mike Parti's workshop, that he's still using today". I plan on using this machinery for a long time as well.

The "Appendage Mangler" as Part-timer Steve and I call it. It's a gigundo reciprocal hacksaw. Looks like it could cut I-beams and arms with equal aplomb. It was parked under the lathe when I got to Kristina's place. A gift courtesy of Jesse James. Thanks, Jesse! Dig the farmer (no offense to actual farmers, OK?) chain final drive adapted from a bicycle! Too cool.

Taking a break loading the goodies. Hey, this shit is heavy! This ain't no Harbor Fright tooling, this is gen-u-ine forged in the USfuckingA steel! This machinery has been in operation for the last 9 decades, and I'm gonna make sure it runs for a few more. No pictures of the bandsaw, though.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Here's how Von Dutch was photographed as he painted flames, as part of an article on himself for True Magazine's 1958Automotive Annual. The actual article was done sometime in '57. Follow along, and pick up some pointers..........

First, you get yourself "artistically up to the task", by drinking a little wine, smoking a little reefer, and mellowing yourself out by playing a little jazz flute.

Next, you take off your shirt, go over to your architect's board, and you freehand out your flame pattern on brown butcher paper.No self-adhering computer generated masks back then.

Here Von Dutch has masked off the area of the hood he's going to flame, and he's done it completely in tape - no spray mask back then. Now comes the pattern tracing, and the cutout for the flames.

I know what this is like, I prepped and masked off a bunch of flame jobs just like this on cars and bikes.

Dutch doing the color blending. Notice he's doing his color blending across the hood in bands, not in the usual front to back blend.

Also note he isn't wearing a paint respirator. I remember the old timers telling me when I first started painting in '66 "Nah, you don't need a respirator, that lacquer won't hurt ya...". Also, you long time painters will recognize Dutch is using a Binks touchup gun with the old glass jar, vs. the aluminum cup. I still have one of those!

Dutch pulling the masking off, and.........

Voila! One "Dutched" flame job. Man, I wish this picture was in color!

I won't be set up at these events, but I'm going to attend all three. Yeah, I gotta get out of here, it's 3 degrees above Zero here in Denver as I type this, and it's supposed to hit -18 tonight! The "shrinkage factor" alert is definitely out here, haha!

I also have to make a stop in Yucaipa on the way home, to pick up a 6' lathe and an upright bandsaw from Kristina Marie on my way back home. They were both her Dad's (Rip Rose, of Easyriders Ridin' With Rip fame), so I'm stoked to have these particular two machines in my shop, and they'll definitely go right to work when I get them home.

So, if you see me wandering around at these events, come up and say hello. I'm easy to spot, I'm the pasty white guy with the dirty blue jeans, long hair, tats, beat-up engineer boots, and I'll have a really cute photographer with me shooting the events. You can't miss me.

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About Me

Irish Rich is the owner of Shamrock Fabrication/Irish Rich Custom Cycles, a "no frills" custom motorcycle and fabrication shop. Rich has been involved with custom motorcycles and hot rods for over 44 years, and is a member of the Sinners, out of Southern California. Rich and his motorcycles have appeared in Street Chopper, DicE Magazine, The Horse, Easyriders, IronWorks, S&S Performance Times, Bigtwin, Show Class Magazine, Jesse James' documentary "The History Of The Chopper", One World Studios' "The Harbortown Bobber", and Joyrides Art Co.-"The Photography of Mark Kawakami". He also currently writes, and has written tech articles and feature stories for most of the custom motorcycle publications, and wrote an ongoing column for the first 16 issues of Greasy Kulture Magazine.